Wake Me Up Inside
by Pharaohess
Summary: Sort of actionadventureish. When the three hikari's become trapped in the Shadow Realm, its up to the three yamis to get them. But when they do, the yamis become trapped...
1. Trapped!

(Reposted due to a story guideline violation, which is now fixed)

I woke up with this thought in my head. I liked it, so I wrote with it. This story probably won't be too long, as in chapter number.

Yami rolled over and looked at the clock. It was 9:15am. Yami groaned; it was too early to be getting up yet. As he rolled back over to go back to sleep, he decided against it - he may as well get up, as it was Saturday, and no doubt everyone would be going to the arcade.

There were a few sounds of movement from Yugi's room, so Yami passed it by without thought. He showered, dressed, and ate breakfast. However, by about 10:20am, Yami was starting to wonder if he should check if Yugi was ok. Yugi often slept in on Saturdays, but whenever Yami got up, Yugi was normally roused, to get up about ten or twenty minutes after him.

Yami decided it would be best just to make sure he was ok – Yugi was generally a light sleeper. When Yami opened Yugi's bedroom door, he saw Yugi was collapsed on the floor, extremely still.

With his suspicions highly aroused and concern rising, Yami checked his hikari. Yugi's eyes were slightly opened and glazed over. He was breathing, but in slow, uneven breathes.

Yami recognised the symptoms of someone who was without a mind – someone who was trapped in the Shadow Realm.

Yami only knew two people who could have done it, his main two suspects. He was approaching the front door to go find Marik and Bakura, when the door swung open and the two of them walked in.

"Pharaoh! What did you do to my hikari!" snarled Bakura, approaching Yami with a certain atmosphere of darkness.

"What? What did you two do to Yugi!" Yami responded.

"We didn't do anything, baka! What did you do?" replied Marik.

"Calm down…okay, I didn't send anyone to the Shadow Realm," said Bakura. "Come on, would I do that to my own hikari?"

"Yes," said Yami and Marik in unison.

"It was a rhetorical question, idiots. I wouldn't now, but I might have tried a few times in the past - "

"Might? MIGHT? Understatement of the millennia!"

"Shut up, Pharaoh."

Yami crossed his arms. "Make me."

"You want to go to the Shadow Realm?"

Marik grinned. "There you go! The Pharaoh was telling the truth! You definitely threaten enough."

Bakura glared at Marik. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Your record is against you. You've actually sent your hikari to the Shadow Realm!"

Marik sighed, the grin fading. "Two things. One – it was months ago; I've changed. Two – he was annoying me. What else was I supposed to do?"

Yami raised an eyebrow. "Still, you've actually done it."

Marik turned to Yami. "Oh? Then what about you, almighty Pharaoh?"

Yami raised his hands in defence. "Hey, I've got a clean record, unlike you. I've never tried, and never will. I swear to Ra, it wasn't me."

Bakura sighed. "Right. So, it was none of us. Who was it then?"

"Um, I think it would be in our best interests to find our hikaris before we discuss this any further?" asked Marik.

"Agreed. Whose got the biggest room? Out of the hikaris?"

"Malik, I think. Why?" responded Marik.

"I just think it would be easier if they were all together, and if we entered together. Just in case. That's all"

"I agree."

"Same. Bring Yugi and Ryou round to our place. I'll get back there and tell Isis what's happening. Should I ring the others?"

"It's probably in our best interests to. Meet there in fifteen minutes."

"Right."

Marik and Bakura ran out the door as Yami ran back upstairs to find Yugi. Yugi was fully dressed, in jeans and his black sleeveless top. Yami decided he must have got up after Yugi, and just not realised. That means Yugi could've been trapped the Shadow Realm for about an hour!

Yami arrived at the Ishtar's about ten minutes later. Bakura was already there, with Marik in Malik's room. Malik was looking like Yugi – sickly, his eyes glazed and his breath slow. Ryou was on a stretcher on one side of Malik's bed. There was an empty stretcher on the other side. Yami placed Yugi onto it.

The three hikaris were all dressed, indicating a time frame.

"Marik, Bakura – when did you find them like this?"

Bakura exhaled. "Ah, I got up after Ryou, and he was fine, until about - 10:15. Then he collapsed, and I came to hunt down you two."

"You saw him?"

"Yeah. He was fine. Totally normal."

"Marik?"

"I was up at about 9am, and Malik was up after me. I saw him briefly. Then I didn't see him for about half an hour, and found him collapsed on the floor in the hallway. It must have been about 9:55 or so. Then I started to panic, and came to find you two, being the only ones I know who have Shadow Magic like this. I ran to Bakura's house, but he wasn't there. So I came to your house, in time to meet Bakura. You?"

"I got up at about 9:15. I thought Yugi was still sleeping, but he must have been up at about 9am. When I thought I should go find him, it was about 10:20. Like the other two, he had collapsed, but I'm unsure of the time he did. He could've been there for almost an hour. I came to find you two, but you came to me instead."

Bakura adopted a thoughtful look. "Right. So, Ryou collapsed at 10:15. But Yugi and Malik?"

Everyone else had started to arrive. When the entire gang – Joey, Téa, Tristan, Maï, and Seto – were grouped in Malik's room, Marik explained the situation.

After he had finished, Seto asked, "So you three are going into the shadow realm to find them?"

"Right."

"But you might get trapped!" Téa exclaimed as the three yami's sat cross-legged at the end of their hikari's beds, preparing to enter the Shadow Realm.

"Téa, the main word in that sentence is 'might'," murmured Yami, as the three of them slipped into the Shadow Realm.

Finite! Review please!


	2. Shadow Realm Adventure

My thanks to my reviewers! I'm sorry I edited out your replies, but that was the guideline violation. Now fixed, and everyone's happy.

Ryou was in darkness. His breathing and heartbeats sounded, to him, as though they were being amplified a hundred fold. He couldn't see anything, not even his hand in front of his face. The blackness was surrounding him on all sides. He would never find anyone, or anything, but just be lost, isolated, trapped inside this increasing darkness. He was totally alone in the suffocating shadows.

Yugi was chained to the bottom of a pool. The pool was slowly filling with water. In the rising water, Yugi strained to break the manacle around his ankle, which was preventing him from escaping. He knew if he didn't break the chain, if he didn't get out of this pool, if he didn't escape from this, he would drown, the manacle restraining him from getting above the level of the water to oxygen.

Malik was trapped. The flames around him burned furiously, the smoke becoming thicker with each passing second. There was no way out. He was trapped, trapped inside a fence of blazing flame. The flames were coming closer, slowly working towards him. He was going to be burned alive if he didn't somehow stop them, somehow escape. He was going to die from burns and smoke inhalation, die with no time to think. He could only think of the intense heat, the brightness of the flame, the thickness of the smoke…

Ryou was having a panic attack. He was never going to see light again. He was going to be forever condemned to walk alone, in this never-ending gloom.

"Where am I?" he cried aloud to the darkness. His voice sounded soft and thin in the heavy darkness.

"Alone…" murmured a dark voice inside his head. "Alone and lost…forever…"

"No! I can't believe it! I refuse to!"

"Ah, but Ryou, you must look around. There is no one here. Nothing. You will have to believe it someday…"

"NO!"

Ryou tried to look down. He could vaguely see his hands. They were faintly there, where they hadn't been before. He was sure the darkness had been too thick to see them previously.

"I'm not alone! I have Bakura! He couldn't leave me completely – we're yami and hikari! We're each other's other half."

With each passing moment, Ryou started to see more around him. A light was growing in the dark, about two feet in front of Ryou. Every time Ryou stated something countering what he had been thinking, the light grew stronger.

"I have friends, and I know they'll never leave me. I've met so many new, good people. Yugi and Yami, and Malik and Marik, the other four who share a yami/hikari bond! They would never leave me behind…we always stick together."

The light was now growing in size, slowly taking the form of a human.

"And the others…Téa, Tristan, Joey, Seto, Maï…we always stick by each other! I'm never alone!"

The light stopped growing. It was in the form of a human, and no longer building, in brightness or volume.

Ryou took a step towards it. As soon as he touched it, he felt something, a feeling, let go of him.

Ryou opened his eyes. He was standing in darkness that had no boundaries. A few meters away, Yugi stood, swaying slightly, as though in water, his eyes closed. A few more meters past Yugi, Malik stood, eyes closed, sweating, his hands raised in a defence. He was coughing.

Ryou didn't know what was going on. He ran up to Yugi, who was closest, and shook him by the shoulder.

"Yugi!"

Yugi was about to drown. The water had reached his neck, and was still climbing. Yugi knew he was going to die. The chain was too strong for only one person to break. The chilling water reached his chin. Yugi was sure no one was going to come. He couldn't get out of this situation alone.

As Yugi took his last breath, and the water rose above his head, he thought he heard someone calling his name.

As the oxygen decrease started to take its toll, and Yugi started to feel faint, he thought he saw Ryou above him, calling to him. He closed his eyes to the vision, knowing it was probably just an illusion.

Yugi opened his eyes when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Ryou was in the water, helping him to escape the manacle. Ryou put his hand under Yugi's arm and they both pushed off from the bottom of the pool. The strain was too great for the chain, with two people pulling it. It broke.

Ryou and Yugi swam up to the surface…

Yugi's eyes opened. He was standing, and Ryou was next to him, one hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ok, Yugi?"

"No…I mean yes…I mean…I don't know what I mean…I was inside a pool, chained to the bottom of it, and you saved me… helped me break the chain and escape it…I thought I would drown…"

"I think it might have been all in your head…I didn't move, I only shook you by the shoulder. I did it for about five seconds, and you…well…woke up…"

"Do you think Malik's trapped inside his head too?"

"Yeah. Come on. We need to get him out."

"Ryou, grab Malik's arm. I'll grab the other. We could be able to literally pull him out. On three, pull…one…two…"

Ryou tensed; ready to pull Marik from whatever sort of nightmare he was trapped in.

"Three!"

Malik coughed. The smoke was getting thicker, the flames were getting higher. And closer…they were getting closer to him, ready to scorch flesh, to cause pain and to end life…

The smoke was making Malik's eyes water. He could hardly see at all, as the flames were so bright, dancing in front of him. The smoke was also slowly suffocating him. It was filling his lungs; thick, solid, dark grey smoke.

Malik wiped sweat from his forehead. The intense heat was building, over powering him, and he was growing dizzy and light headed.

He fell to his knees, as the smoke, combined with the heat, slowly started the killing process. Malik prepared for death, prepared to endure such pain as when the flames reached him.

He was about to give up, but seeing two familiar faces through the flame made him stand back up.

Yugi and Ryou reached out a hand each. Where they stood the flames became half their original size. Malik grasped both hands, and Yugi and Ryou pulled him over the flames.

Malik opened his eyes. Yugi and Ryou had pulled him forward from where he had been originally standing.

"Yugi? Ryou? What…"

"Malik, this will sound weird, but what did you see?"

Ryou frowned at Yugi's question. "Flame. I was trapped in fire. I couldn't get out. The smoke was suffocating me, and the fire was going to kill me, burn me alive, and burn me to death, I knew. But then…then you two arrived, grasped me by both hands and pulled me out, out over of the flame. Why?"

"Well, I was trapped at the bottom of a pool. I was chained to the bottom and it was filling with water. I was so sure that I would drown, and when the water rose over my head, and I was using the last of my oxygen, Ryou appeared, and helped me break the chain and swim to the surface."

Ryou nodded. "As for me, I was trapped in darkness. I couldn't find anyone, or anything. I kept thinking I was going to be alone for eternity, and I kept hearing this negative thing – sort of like a voice, but more a feeling, that basically told me I was totally alone. I was so isolated…but then it thought of you guys, and how we stick together, being hikaris, and how Bakura could never leave me, as he was my other half. I saw a light, so I went towards it, and then I opened my eyes and was here."

Yugi crossed his arms. "Right…and Ryou, what were we doing? Me and Malik?"

"You, Yugi looked like you were pulling at something, and were swaying like you were in water, and Malik, you had your hands up in front of your face and were coughing."

Yugi nodded. "It was, I'm sure, all in our minds. We were trapped inside our heads…and trapped inside our…?"

"Fears," said Malik. " I know I have always been afraid of being trapped in fire."

"Yeah, " murmured Ryou, "I've always had a fear of isolation…"

"And I've always been scared of being trapped underwater…so we were trapped in our fears, in our minds…"

"In the Shadow Realm," stated Marik.

The three hikaris sat bolt upright, Yugi and Ryou on stretchers and Malik on his bed.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief to see them properly alive, with mind and body back together.

"Wait," said Seto, "Yugi, Ryou, Malik, your yamis just went into the Shadow Realm to find you…what happens now?"

"What? Oh great, we have to go back in again…"

"But how do we get there?"

"Well," said Malik, "We're looking for our yamis, so in theory we should go straight there."

"But we aren't tired, and there's no one here who can trap us…" stated Ryou.

"I have an idea…Joey, can you please pass me that padded baseball bat…?"

"Malik…"

"Listen Yugi… you have to trust me…if I knock you and Ryou out with this, you can get to the Shadow Realm."

There was a small outburst from some of the others at this.

"Knock them out?"

"You could seriously hurt them!"

"Malik, I'm going to trust you," said Yugi slowly. "I want to find my yami, and if it means pain, so be it…"

"Yugi! You might get trapped again!"

"I'm really, really, sorry, Yugi…" said Malik, raising the bat.

"Téa, main word in that sentence is might…" grinned Yugi, as the bat collided with the side of his head and he fell into the Shadow Realm

Review me please! I will thank you in advance…Thank you.


	3. Back in the Shadow Realm AGAIN!

So sorry for not having updated for ages! Thankies to reviewers!

Yugi was plunged into darkness. When his thoughts cleared, and his head stopped spinning, he looked up. He was back in the Shadow Realm.

Ryou appeared beside him. He was looking a bit shaken.

"I hate being dragged into the Shadow Realm."

"I think we all share that particular thought…"

Malik appeared on the other side of Yugi.

"How'd you get here?" asked Ryou. "You knocked us out."

"I got Joey to do it. I had to persuade him to, though…"

Yugi nodded, grinning.

"So, anyway, where are our yamis'?"

Malik paced out in front of Yugi and Ryou, then turned to face them. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead grew pale, looking over Yugi's shoulder.

"Turn...turn around…"

Yugi and Ryou turned, and were faced with the three yamis. They were a few meters away, all with their eyes closed, faces pale and breathing patterns unusual.

Bakura had his arms out in front of him, moving slowly from side to side as if trying to find something. Yami was swaying, trying to break something around his leg. Marik was on his knees, arms raised defensively over his head, coughing.

"That was what you looked like," said Ryou, "when I came out of my fear. You looked like they do."

"We looked like them….wait…" a spark seemed to ignite in Yugi's eyes. "I've got it. They're inside our fears! Trapped, just like we were. We need to get them out."

"How do we do that?" asked Malik.

"Same way Ryou got us out before…"

Each hikari ran up to their yami.

Ryou grasped Bakura's searching wrists. Instead of Bakura coming out of the trance, Ryou was pulled back inside his fear.

He was back in the darkness. But this time, instead of knowing he was alone, he knew Bakura was there, somewhere, searching, praying to be found.

Ryou set of at a sprint, running blindly through the darkness. He didn't know where he was going, or if he'd find Bakura by searching this way. As he ran, he called to Bakura, hoping Bakura would hear and answer him, even if Bakura thought Ryou was an illusion.

Ryou stopped, out of breath. He slowed his breathing and listened for any sound of Bakura.

"No…help me…anyone…I'm so helpless…"

Ryou started to run toward the voice. It sounded as though Bakura was having a small panic attack, hyperventilating, and getting stressed.

Ryou could see a figure moving towards him. He walked towards it, and saw it was Bakura, dazed and shaken.

"But…I can't be alone…"

Ryou reached out and grasped Bakura's wrists.

"You're never alone!"

Bakura's eyes snapped open just as Ryou's did. They were standing across from each other.

Bakura smiled at his hikari. He turned his hands over and clasped Ryou's wrists in return to the hands already on his own.

"Thank you."

"No worries. Are you ok?"

"Fine, fine. Where was I? Where were we?"

"Inside my fear…"

"Your fear?"

"Of being isolated. Alone, and helpless."

"I didn't know…"

"What do we do about the others?"

"Leave them, hikari. We can't interfere."

Malik seized the top of Marik's arm. He was pulled into a room of flame, smoke and intense heat. His fear.

The flames were concentrated in one corner. Malik ran over to it, seeing his yami, defenceless, as the flames closed in on him.

Malik called out to him, but Marik showed no signs of having heard him. Marik was coughing, his head lowered, his body kneeling on the ground.

Malik looked for a way to get to his yami. The flames were high, and there was nothing to stop them with. In one part of the fire, however, Malik noticed the level of the flames dropped a few feet.

Running over to them, he saw if he somehow got over them, he could reach Marik. Malik knew it must be something he could do – running through them was out, so was jumping straight over them, but…a thought occurred to Malik.

If he got enough height, he could dive-roll over them, landing safely on the other side of the flame barrier.

Malik moved back, getting a good, long, run up. He started to sprint towards the lower flames. As he got closer, the heat grew intensive, and his eyes started to water.

Knowing this wouldn't help, but would hinder him, Malik continued running. He had to get to Marik, just had to…

Half a meter from the start of the flames, Malik dived.

He got enough height, but one arm brushed the flames on his left side. Searing, burning pain shot up his arm as the flames were left behind him and he landed on the ground next to Marik.

The skin on the top of his arm was blistered and badly burned, but Malik's concern for Marik drove the thought of pain out of his head.

"Mal….Malik?" coughed Marik.

Can you get up?

Marik's face changed into a mask of determination. He nodded, and stood, swaying slightly in the smoke.

Marik, there's one way we can get out of here. You remember dive-rolls?

Yeah…

We need to do a combined dive-roll over the lower patch of flame, over there. Can you do that?

Yes…I think so…

Malik put his right arm around Marik's shoulders, while Marik put his left arm around his hikari's shoulders. Doing a run up in the little space they had, the two pushed off at the same time and cleared the flame.

Malik's eyes opened just in time to see Marik's eyes open before him.

"Hikari! Thank Ra! Thank you so much! Are you alright?"

Malik drew breath in a hiss as he cradled his left arm. "Burned."

"Ow. Sorry, I take responsibility for that."

"You shouldn't."

"Everything ok?" asked Bakura, as he and Ryou walked over.

"Fine. But what about the Pharaoh and his hikari?"

"Still trapped. It won't be long, I hope."

"Don't we all…"

Yugi watched as Ryou grab Bakura's wrists and become trance-like. Then he reached out and grasped Yami's shoulder.

He was standing above a pool. As he expected, at the bottom Yami was chained preventing his escape. He was straining on the chain, and hadn't seen Yugi yet.

Yugi called out, and Yami stopped and looked up. Their eyes met and Yami smiled.

Yugi dived into the pool and swam straight down to the bottom to free his yami. Yami smiled again, but his eyes started to close and he started to lean back from the lack of oxygen.

/Yami/

Yami's eyes slowly opened. By now, Yugi was right beside him.

/Yami, can you kick off from the bottom? If we do it together, it should break the chain…/

/I'll try…/

Yugi lifted Yami's limp arm and draped it around his shoulders.

/Now/

The two boys pushed off. The chain strained and broke, and Yugi and Yami started to swim to the surface. Half way there, Yami started to slip in and out of consciousness. Yugi struggled to keep swimming with Yami, who was acting like a weight, pulling him back down.

/Yami/

/I'm sorry…save yourself…/

/Hell no! You're coming with me/

/…/

/Yami? Listen to me! I'm not going without you/

Yugi could feel his own oxygen supply running out. The physical strain was taking its toll, but Yugi could see the surface only a few feet away.

Using up his remaining strength, both physically and mentally, Yugi pushed himself to his limit and broke the surface.

He pulled Yami's limp form onto the edge of the pool, and breathed a sigh of relief as Yami started to breathe.

Yugi's eyes opened to find two more violet eyes staring into his own. Yami smiled, and pulled his hikari into an embrace.

/Thank you/

/Forget it/

They pulled away, walking over to the others.

"Pharaoh! You got out alright!"

"Yeah, I did, Tomb Robber. We all did. Thanks to our hikaris."

"So," said Bakura, "what actually happened?"

The hikaris took it in turns to explain – their fears, saving each other, and then returning to the real world, only to find they had to return to find their yamis.

Marik burst out laughing when Malik explained about the padded baseball bat. The other two shared slightly horrified, but mainly amused expressions with each other.

After that, the yami's explained what they saw, and how their own hikari had saved them.

"So, how do we get out of here?" asked Malik.

"Ah, this time, you have us," grinned Bakura.

Using their Shadow Powers, the three yamis transported themselves and their hikaris out of the Shadow Realm.

When the six of them 'woke' in Malik's room, there was more explaining to do. Once again, they explained to the others what had happened in the Shadow Realm.

"I still can't believe you all actually went in there of you own free will!" Téa exclaimed when they were finished. "You all might have been trapped forever!"

Yugi sighed. "Téa, the main word in that sentence…"

"…is might" finished Yami.

That's the end. Thanks for reading, I'll be writing again soon!


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